She Wants a Hippopotamus for Christmas
by spacegypsy1
Summary: Daniel and Vala Christmas ditty.


She Wants a Hippopotamus for Christmas

spacegypsy1

Daniel and Vala Christmas ditty.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

**December 23rd**

When Daniel suddenly jumped up from his desk and appeared to stomp towards the door, Vala cut her eyes in his direction. "Where are you going?" she demanded.

Daniel turned, eyes narrowed and mouth set in a tight lipped scowl, "to the armory"

"What!? Why?"

"To get a zat!"

Vala straightened, rolling her chair around slightly and taking a quick, sideways, concerned look in his direction. "What do you need a zat for?"

"You!" His hands went to his hips.

Her head spun towards him and her brows rose in confusion. "I don't understand."

"If you sing that damned song one more time I'm going to zat you!"

"What song? You can't hear it, I have on the little ear thingies."

"You've sung 'I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas' for three hours!"

"I have!?"

Hands rising and fist clinched, Daniel stared at her.

"Oh." Vala lowered her eyes, pulled out her ear pieces, turned off her IPod, and looked away, going back to her work.

Suddenly feeling awful for having ruined her happy, Christmas spirit, Daniel dropped his head, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and shuffled his feet. "Vala?" he said softly.

"Hmmm?" She didn't turn and her voice was low.

He paused. "I...I'm sorry."

"What for? I'm the one who should be sorry, Daniel. I'll stop, now. Just come back and work. Actually," Vala stood and unplugged her laptop, "I can work in my room. Besides, I have nothing else to do so I have all weekend to complete all the cateloging."

_Scrooge, scrooge, scrooge, _Daniel berated himself. "Don't go. I...I like having you here. Maybe just change the song every once in a while."

Vala, standing there with her laptop cradled to her chest, looked absolutely astounded, and for the first time in her life could not think of a thing to say.

"Please?" Coming to stand close in front of her, Daniel reached out and picked up the ear pods, and gently stuck them in her ears. "There. You have a nice voice. How about a little Rudolph, some Chestnuts Roasting and maybe some Jingle Bells woven in with the Hippo? But no chipmunks, I might have to zat myself." He grinned, apologetically.

Nodding slowly, still speechless, she backed away from him. Standing so close made her uncomfortable...but in a pleasant sort of way. _Oh, my. He smells so good. _"I don't have to listen."

"I want you too." He took a step forward, closing the gap. "And I don't mind the singing. It's just that the same song over and over sort of gets on my nerves. And what did you mean that you can finish work this weekend. Christmas is this weekend."

Vala shrugged, backed up again, and plopped down on her chair. "So? It's a Tau'ri holiday. I'm going to catch up on work..."

Daniel squatted down in front of her. "You love Christmas. Last year you stayed at Sam's with her and Cassie. You said you had a 'lovely' time."

"Sam's going to Washington this year. Cassandra is going to her boyfriend's parents. Cam is going to some place for some football stuff with somebody. Muscles is gone and won't be back until after the whole Jaffe big celebration somewhere undisclosed. Personally, I think he's not really going there. So I'm working, to keep myself from utter boredom!"

Lifting her chin with a finger, Daniel smiled, thinking, _I'm always screwing up._ "Vala, I didn't mean to be a scrooge. You make Christmas more like Christmas for me. I'll see if I can make dinner reservations for us for Christmas evening...would you like that?"

She nodded fast and quick, looking away, a smile beginning to spread as she whispered, "Okay." Daniel remained at her side for a moment, making her nervous.

Finally, he sighed and stood. "Good, I better go call my friend and pull in a favor to get us a table."

Nodding again, she smiled up at him. "Right. Christmas dinner. I'd like that."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**December 24th**

Until his stomach growled it didn't occur to Daniel that, first of all he hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was already dinnertime, and secondly, Vala had been absent since breakfast.

The commissary was throwing a Christmas Eve Dinner for all the teams and support personnel who were on call. He and Vala were invited, though they weren't actually on call. He had no need to go home and poor Vala had no place else to go.

Daniel rose slowly, leaving his computer on and suddenly curious, he went in search of Vala. Stopping by a few known hangouts of hers got him 'haven't seen her all day' from everyone. Heading for her quarters he stuffed his hands in his pockets and dropped his head. He'd gotten so caught up in work he hadn't noticed she was absent, and here it was Christmas Eve. "Grinch!" he scolded himself with a harsh whisper.

Taking a deep breath to fortify himself, Daniel knocked. When the door opened, his eyes widened in awe. "Wow!"

"Silly, I know, but...well...I just wanted to..."

"No," he said in wonder as Vala stepped aside and he walked in. Her room was lit with blue and white tiny lights from floor to ceiling. A large glowing star hung from the light fixture. Bing Crosby was singing in the background.

A tree, decorated with bright multicolored lights, stars and angels stood in one corner. A village snow scene, lit with twinkling lights, was displayed on her table.

"Not at all silly. This is great. It's...Christmasy. Very...magical." Daniel did another 360, taking in all the little decorations he'd missed the first time. Laughing, he turned to Vala. "Even your Giraffe has bows and bells, and where did you find that tiny Santa hat?"

"Siler took me shopping this morning. You were busy. I'm starving, are you going to eat?"

"Yeah, I thought we'd go to the Christmas Eve party in the commissary. You?"

"I was thinking of...bringing something back here." Vala blinked in surprise when Daniel took her hand.

"Perfect! Let's go. I'm hungry and we wouldn't want to waste all the decorations." He tugged her along behind him. "I got the reservations for eight tomorrow night. Dress up, it's a fancy place. I got us a corner table, it's sort of a romantic place. You don't mind, do you?"

_Mind!? Mind!! Are you crazy!? _Vala swallowed her excitement down. "Oh, no. That's nice."

When they returned to her room, trays loaded with Christmas fare, they sat side by side at her table.

Vala retrieved a bottle of wine, and two wine glasses from a drawer. "Both Samantha and I have our stash for girl talk time. Though she's been gone so much we haven't had a chance to get together. I miss her."

"Yeah," he said taking the bottle, opening it and filling the glasses. "We all miss her. So," he lifted his glass and Vala raised hers. "To absent friends. And...to us...for, er, a happy New Year...for us...as in, well...us."

Clicking his glass, Vala stared. "Us? What kind of us?"

He shrugged and the drank his wine until the glass was empty. "Us, us. You and me...you know, dating. I mean, if you wanted to. Date. That is if..."

Setting her untouched wine glass back on the table, Vala cocked her head and smiled. "Yes, Daniel, I want to...I mean if you do. I do, actually, even if you didn't want to, I'd want to..."

He leaned and kissed her just shy of her lips, quick and unsure. "Yep. I do. So...to us." His empty wine glass went up, then noticing it was empty he filled it again, and the glasses clicked.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**December 25th**

Daniel had to keep reminding himself he was not in high school and there was no reason to be nervous about facing Vala at breakfast. They'd stayed up until about two this morning talking about everything but...well, this dating thing. He'd kissed her good night. A short kiss, a soft, enticing kiss...but he'd pulled away and left her standing there looking all dreamy eyed. _Holy buckets!_

He'd wasted a few years avoiding this very thing. But so much had changed. Him. Her. The Program. No god awful villains, a few minor ones though, but they'd all survived the last year. SG-1 remained intact. Things were good, more missions were exploratory, meet and greet, barter, and most importantly, researching various culture.

Vala had progressed into being indispensable to his research. And him. In more ways then one. He hated it when Mitchell would referred to her as 'Jackson's assistant, Jackson's girlfriend and Jackson's princess partner...but Vala seemed to like it.

Entering the commissary, he looked around and didn't spot her until he heard her laughter and found her in the midst of a group of young recruits. Probably telling them how she beat him up! Shaking his head, he smiled and joined the group.

"Hello, darling. Hungry?" She'd put that flirty, innuendo lilt on the 'hungry'.

"Very." He answered with a bit of his own brand of innuendo. Tit for tat...that was his new plan.

With a raise of a dark brow, she grinned impishly, hooked her arm with his elbow and pulled him off towards the serving line.

"What time do we need to leave tonight? Will we be out late, or just dinner, no movie, no karaoke, no Passion Fruit cocktails? Will we be escorted by SFs so I don't get abducted?"

Picking up a plate of fruit and yogurt, Daniel turned to her, looking very serious. "No movie, no karaoke, maybe a few Passion Fruit cocktails, no SF guarding us...but maybe we'll stay out late. And we need to leave by seven, the traffic will be..."

Vala grabbed a banana and and apple and pivoted away. "That soon! I need to go, I have a lot of girl stuff to do for tonight." She dashed out, leaving him standing there confused.

Finally, he looked at his watch. "It's only 0800 hours!" he called out, but she was no where in sight.

"Women!" One of the new recruits said, shaking his head. "Ah, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel smiled, "Daniel."

"Yes, sir, Daniel...ah, there's this betting pool and I was wondering if you could give me some inside info...sir."

Lifting his tray, heading for a table, Daniel furrowed his brows. "Inside info? What's the pool?"

"Well, sir, it's about you and Ms Vala. They regulars, old timers, all of them are betting that...well, that it's a no go with you two. But Ms Vala, anybody should be able to tell, is crazy for you...and, I don't really know you, but I've been watching you watch her...and, well, sir, I'm thinking of taking the high odds. So...?"

"Hmm, so the 'old timers' are betting a no go," Daniel said with a wicked grin, "Take it...and..." he looked at the Airman's name, "Airman Bowser, put at least a weeks pay on the odds." Daniel nodded, set his tray back down, picked up his breakfast and wandered out, whistling, "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."

END


End file.
